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OneSource™ In Their Own Words:
MSN's OneSource Clients Discuss Their VMS Solutions
MSN's OneSource™ is an end-to-end Vendor Management System (VMS) solution that combines VMS technology with professional supplemental healthcare staffing services.
OneSource™, the most recognized name in Vendor Management Services, gives you more control over your staffing process. Providing you with a single point of contact for all of your contract needs, OneSource combines management services with leading-edge technology, resulting in higher fill rates and lower turnover.
We invite you to read the Q&As below, which will give you unique insight into the workings of OneSource from the perspective of some of our many satisfied partners.
"Instead of calling multiple agencies to place orders and re-contacting them as orders are filled, we place just one call to our account manager and the service takes responsibility for the rest."
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"Together we designed a customized staffing process, based on joint governance and operations, that is strategic, not tactical."
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"Previous to using a VMS, managing the contracts from multiple staffing partners was difficult and time consuming. Now we have one contract to manage and one relationship. This gives us time to focus on other priorities."
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"VMS allows us to have one number to call and one rate. We're able to leverage our volume through a single funnel as opposed to multiple small engagements. It's much better from the perspective of such areas as data, financial reporting and budgetary projections."
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Q&A with Heidi Krasner RN, MS of Evanston Northwestern Healthcare, Highland Park Hospital, Highland Park, Illinois, in which she discusses her organization's success using MSN's total VMS solution. Ms. Krasner serves as the hospital's clinical nurse manager, staffing office/resource team/vascular access team.
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Has your VMS enabled you to streamline your contingent staffing process? |
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From a staffing office perspective, our VMS with outsourced services provides us with a single point of contact for placing and revising orders. Instead of calling multiple agencies to place orders and re-contacting them as orders are filled, we place just one call to our account manager and the service takes responsibility for the rest. |
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What staffing categories to you manage with MSN's OneSource? |
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We've used our VMS for contingent staffing of travel and per diem nurses, patient care technicians, unit secretaries, OR techs, central supply and physical therapy needs. All with positive results. |
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What are the benefits of having local staffing agency support? |
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We have a single, primary point of contact and a back-up person with our VMS, as well as a person assigned to manage staff orientation and help us when we want to make changes in materials. They all work in a local office and are very familiar with our hospital. This is an advantage because we can meet in person on a regular basis to do things like quickly make changes to our orientation process and just to make sure we're always on the same page. Local support also means that if we do have a problem, it's addressed quickly by someone we know. |
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Does outsourcing your staffing needs diminish your control of the process? |
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Although our VMS includes outsourcing our supplemental staffing needs, we have complete control of the process. |
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How important is Joint Commission healthcare staffing firm certification? |
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I really like that the agency that provides our VMS is certified by the Joint Commission. Not every agency chooses to go that route. Certification gives us confidence that there's a certain level of standards in use. That's important.
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Q&A with Julie Scott Krywicki, RN, of INTEGRIS Health, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, in which she discusses her organization's success using MSN's total VMS solution. Ms. Krywicki serves as the administrative director, patient care services.
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What was the primary issue that drove your decision to use MSN's OneSource? |
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I had a very strong first-person bias against using staffing agencies. But when our in-house float pool became too large, we decided to look at working with an agency. After performing due diligence with a purposeful group of naysayers, we found a company with which to form a partnership that has become a co-driver of the program. We remained in control, but together we designed a customized staffing process, based on joint governance and operations, that is strategic, not tactical. Their people make the difference. |
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What is the most important factor in choosing a VMS partner? |
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When you enter into a VMS partnership with outsourced services, the single most important consideration is the provider's ability to work within your hospital's culture and philosophy. Once you establish a relationship based on this, success as defined through traditional financial metrics will follow. |
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In brief, how does your partnership work? |
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Our VMS services provider is fully integrated with INTEGRIS Health. This is evidenced in part through a shared employee arrangement in which one or more of the partner's staffing professionals may be working in tandem with in-house staff on one of our hospital campuses. This further improves our relationship through cross-pollination of the internal operations of both organizations. |
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INTEGRIS has received accolades for its VMS model, can you provide some examples? |
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In 2000, the Nursing Executive Center of The Advisory Board in Washington, DC published a report entitled, "Elevating Frontline Performance." In it, the INTEGRIS partnership staffing model took top honors for managing flexible staff during a critical shortage of nurses. The Advisory Board stated this model is "Strongly recommended for most members as a highly effective practice for maintaining performance in a time of shortage."
INTEGRIS Baptist Medical Center achieved Magnet designation in May 2007. One of the things the Magnet appraisers were impressed with was the fact that the partnership with our VMS services provider is so strong it's transparent. They really did not know if they were talking with our services provider, an agency subcontractor or one of our core employees during our site visit.
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Is there value in having a VMS partner that's Joint Commission certified? |
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There is a definite benefit from doing business with a VMS technology and services provider that is Joint Commission certified. First, the Joint Commission has stepped up the rigors of their inspection process for hospitals, and consumers have become increasingly more aware of what Joint Commission hospital accreditation means in terms of quality care and patient safety. The Joint Commission is evermore a part of the fabric of hospital operations in this country, and having a staffing partner that is certified is definitely a plus. In short order, this will be an expectation by all hospitals. |
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Can you describe the number one benefit INTEGRIS has derived from its MSN partnership? |
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Our turnover rate is markedly below the national average. A major factor in our success has been the partnership we have with our VMS and outsourced services provider. During this ten-year relationship, we have avoided having to close patient care units due to staffing problems. Due to the quality resources they provide, resulting in stabilized operations, we have been able to focus on the recruitment and retention initiatives necessary to achieve such low turnover. This has been our VMS partner's greatest contribution to us. |
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Q&A with Jill M. Stemmerman RN, MS, CNA BC, Saint Anthony Hospital, Chicago, Illinois, in which she discusses her organization's success using MSN's total VMS solution. Ms. Stemmerman serves as the hospital’s Vice President,
Nursing and Clinical Excellence.
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How would you describe your OneSource partnership, in broad terms? |
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A VMS streamlines the contracting process and the number of formal relationships you have. We felt it important to have a contract in place for each staffing partner we conduct business with. Previous to using a VMS, managing the contracts from multiple staffing partners was difficult and time consuming. Now we have one contract to manage and one relationship. This gives us time to focus on other priorities. |
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Can you describe the value you derive from your MSN partnership? |
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There are three areas that point to the real value of our VMS and outsourced services program. The first is quality, the integrity of our services partner and the work they do to ensure our staffing needs are filled by qualified people. Our partner is Joint Commission certified, which speaks to the quality services they provide. Second is the measurable improvement in workflow and the efficiencies gained in the streamlined process. The third is the consolidation of invoices resulting in timely and accurate reporting of our agency utilization. |
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Can you provide any guidance to those hospitals considering a VMS solution? |
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You need to have a VMS and services partner who is committed to making the program work. Many hospitals may think that such a program will alienate their staffing partners, but a truly professional primary partner will make staffing a collaborative process such that mutual trust evolves between the staffing partners. It's not the technology; it's the people providing the services that make the difference. |
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What about change management and the benefit of change? |
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Having a single point of contact is a culture change, a change in our hospital's relationship with multiple staffing partners. It takes time to build a new relationship with your VMS services advocate. But making just one call to place all of our orders saves time for our in-house staff and the data our service partner provides, for instance, about the number of orders placed versus the number of staff used, is of real value for planning. |
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Some hospital leaders are under the impression that implementing a VMS solution will cede staffing control to their VMS partner. What's your experience? |
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We use the service to staff per diem and long-term, locally contracted nurses, and also some allied health, such as physical therapy. I really feel we're now in much tighter control of the process and are much more transparent in our utilization and spend. Also, our CEO has a better picture of our staffing needs, activities and the costs associated with them because of the consolidated billing and management reports. |
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Q&A with James La Rosa, M.D. of Westchester Medical Center, Valhalla, New York, in which he discusses his organization's success using MSN's total VMS solution. Dr. La Rosa serves as the medical center's executive vice president.
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What was the number one issue that drove your decision to consider a VMS partnership? |
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There were a significant number of agencies supplying per diem and various staff positions and we decided to hire a master VMS vendor. We sent out an RFP, looked at the rates provided, and were able to save a significant amount of dollars, while eliminating all of the non-contract contractors. |
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From where do you derive value from your OneSource partnership? |
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VMS allows us to have one number to call and one rate. We're able to leverage our volume through a single funnel as opposed to multiple small engagements. It's much better from the perspective of such areas as data, financial reporting and budgetary projections. |
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What's the single most important benefit of MSN solution partnership? |
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One conduit, a master VMS vendor, gives us more control over the staffing process. |
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Of what value is Joint Commission certification of your VMS partner? |
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Certification is important, particularly in this day and age, because it allows us an objective evaluation to compare agency A to agency B. Although certification may not ensure complete competency, why would we not want our VMS agency to be (Joint Commission) certified? |
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